Investigation of interface characteristics of Al2O3/Si under various O2 plasma exposure times during the deposition of Al2O3 by PA-ALD

Plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (PA-ALD) is more suitable than thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) for mass production because of its faster growth rate. However, controlling surface damage caused by plasma during the PA-ALD process is a key issue. In this study, the passivation characteristics of Al2O3 layers deposited by PA-ALD were investigated with various O2 plasma exposure times. The growth per cycle (GPC) during Al2O3 deposition was saturated at approximately 1.4 Å/cycle after an O2 plasma exposure time of 1.5 s, and a refractive index of Al2O3 in the range of 1.65–1.67 was obtained. As the O2 plasma exposure time increased in the Al2O3 deposition process, the passivation properties tended to deteriorate, and as the radio frequency (RF) power increased, the passivation uniformity and the thermal stability of the Al2O3 layer deteriorated. To study the Al2O3/Si interface characteristics, the capacitance-voltage (C-V) and the conductance-voltage (G-V) were measured using a mercury probe, and the fixed charge density (Qf) and the interface trap density (Dit) were then extracted. The Qf of the Al2O3 layer deposited on a Si wafer by PA-ALD was almost unaffected, but the Dit increased with O2 plasma exposure time. In conclusion, as the O2 plasma exposure time increased during Al2O3 layer deposition by PA-ALD, the Al2O3/Si interface characteristics deteriorated because of plasma surface damage.